Your most valuable asset is not your home, an heirloom, your retirement account, or even your health. Your most valuable asset is time. God does not grant each of us the same time duration, but the time he grants to each of us remains constant.
All of us live 24-hour days. We sell our time to our employers who compensate us with a mutually agreed value. The energy utilized by our minds and bodies during waking hours requires us to devote a significant amount of time to recovery via the unconscious state we call sleep. And the remainder of our time not used on domestic responsibilities, we consume as we choose. How we choose to use the rest of our time determines most of our immediate and long-term futures. Unlike generations before us, we face a new challenge in the use of our time – the cellphone.
According to the Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans between the ages of 18-49 own a smartphone – in other words, everyone. Smartphones are great servants and brutal masters. Like your phone, mine has apps for directions, travel, dining, scheduling, exercise, sermon prep, journaling, podcasts, retail, and much more. Also, on my phone are games and social media apps and an Internet browser. These last apps are the danger zone where my phone becomes my master and not my servant. Here’s how I defend myself against the tyrant.
Smartphones are great servants and brutal masters.
I am a selectively disciplined person. That means I choose the things where I want to be disciplined. Because I am old, I am very disciplined about caffeine intake after 3:00pm. This came to me the hard way. Sleep will not be what I desire if I choose a Pepsi over ice served in a glass later than mid-afternoon. On the other hand, I have a very difficult time ignoring the craving to request a handmade vanilla malt served to me by the equally sweet Brenda anytime after the sun goes down. I could satisfy the passion in a six-ounce glass, but why should I when a sixteen-ounce glass is so much better!
I’d love to tell you that I am the master of my iPhone like I used to be the master of my golden retriever, but I am not. I could tell Jack the dog to stay, and he would. My phone does not so readily obey my commands. Simply, I lack discipline to control my phone. I don’t have the maturity necessary to master it. Because I know this, I have made a simple choice regarding my phone that guards my time so that my phone is my servant not my master.
MANAGING APPS
I regularly delete and add the same apps over and again. I haven’t done the research, but I would not be surprised to discover that social media apps dominate smartphone use. A few years ago, my kids suggested Instagram. I posted little and grazed much. My kids’ pages make me smile. Fishing, baseball, basketball, skiing, golf, and exercise accounts deliver instruction and recreation. I quickly discovered that an hour could go by scrolling from one reel to the next. The same is true for Twitter. I can be an information junkie. For me, Twitter is like an encyclopedia. There I discover a wide variety of interesting places, people, experiences, events, and ideas. It’s my time nemesis, and I know it. So, I’ve made the choice to install social media apps when I want to use them and uninstall them when I am finished. Other apps, Facebook for example, I choose not to have on my phone. If they are not on my phone, they cannot master me. Until I become more disciplined, this will be my solution.
LIMITING GAMES
Back in the late 1980s, CBS premiered Star Trek, The Next Generation. One episode centered on a theme where nearly the entire crew including Captain Picard became addicted to a video game played on a personal device. A disastrous outcome was predictable. A cool feature of our phones is the games they contain. They can pass the time while waiting to board the aircraft or sitting alone in the cold doctor’s office. They have their place and their usefulness.
I’ve determined that boring is better than bondage.
To protect me from the dictator, I allow only two games on my phone, neither of which challenges me to get a new high score, complete the task in a faster time, or compete against online opponents. To most people Ticket to Ride and Monopoly are boring, and to tell the truth, they can be for me too, but I’ve determined that boring is better than bondage. I cannot afford to be captive to my phone. Time is too precious and too fleeting to spend it playing games on a 3 x 5 screen.
You’ve given me your time by reading today’s Musing, for that I thank you. Your gift of time to me (by reading what I write) helps me make the best use of the time God gives to me. In return, I hope I’ve given you food for thought to make the best use of the time God gives to you.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.